Growing up on a small, predominately white and elderly filled island, I was never exposed to concepts of “race”, “identity” and “culture”. The University of Washington has opened my mind to so many social issues and ideas. When we did the identity wheel exercise in class, I felt pretty lost. The examples given didn’t really apply to me. I’m white, upper-middle class, with no political standpoint and no religious views. I felt like the most boring person ever with no identity. But after reading these pieces, and in class discussion, I realized that identities could be anything. I am an American, a daughter, a student, a scientist, and I’m unique. That part of class discussion was really cool to me. I’m really interested in racism and social activism because the University of Washington is really my first experience with both. Racism isn’t a direct course topic, but I feel that it falls strongly under national identity. I really connected to the NPR “German Minorities Still Fight To Be Seen, Heard” piece. In the article, it said Germany still strongly linked ethnicity to national identity. Last week in EDUC 360, we talked a lot about racism and microagressions. In the United States, associating race with national identity can considered a racial microagression which are detrimental to both the perpetrator and the victim. There was a clear example of microagressions within the piece. “Where are you from?” It surprised me that there are no national debates on racism, yet surveys consistently show most Germans don't want foreigners in their country. This is very unlike the US because there is a HUGE national debate on racism. It really stood out to me how Carl Camura said "White Germans do not perceive themselves as racist at all. The idea is there are no other races in Germany. Germany is a monoracial country so we can't be racist. It's pretty easy”. This statement struck me as horribly heartbreaking. I hope to see it in person while in Berlin. For research, I’m strongly drawn to social activism through street art. I know without a doubt, I want to do research on art and art analysis because, as a STEM major, it’s not something I would normally get the chance to research. Currently, I’m open to changes within the exact topic as long as it has to do with art. The graffiti images on the Berlin Wall within the “Ghosts of Berlin” were powerful to me and I’m so excited to see them while study abroad. My preliminary research question is “how does social activism through art differ from East and West Berlin?”

Michaila,
I'm not sure if you have been following these recent events but it may be interesting to you in light of your interest in learning and having discussions on racism. It doesn't have anything to do directly with your current project but it raises a number of compelling questions.